SFC MELVIN MORRIS, the Staff Sergeant, United States Army, Detachment A-403, Company D, 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne), 1st Special Forces. For extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations involving conflict with an armed hostile force in the Republic of Vietnam: Staff Sergeant Morris distinguished himself while serving as commander of a strike force on a mission north and east of Chi Lang. Sister companies of his battalion had encountered an extensive enemy mine field and were subsequently engaged by a hostile force. By radio Sergeant Morris learned that a fellow team commander had been killed and had fallen near an enemy bunker. Immediately reorganizing the strike forces into an effective assault posture, he advanced them and then moved out with two men to recover the body. Observing the maneuver, the hostile force concentrated their fire and wounded both men accompanying Sergeant Morris. After he assisted the two back to the lines of the main force, he again charged into the hail of fire to approach the nearest enemy bunker, throwing grenades into it. As his men laid a base of suppressive fire, he neared the position of the team leader’s body. When a machine gun emplacement directed it strafing fusillade at him, he annihilated the position with hand grenades and continued his assault, eliminating three additional bunkers. Driving the enemy from the entrenchement nearest the fallen team leader, he retrieved his comrade and started to his troop’s position. As he neared the strike force he was wounded three times, but he struggled forward until he brought his fallen comrade to the friendly position. Staff Sergeant Morris’ extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty were in keeping with the highest tradition of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the United States Army.

SFC. Morris joined the L.O.V. in 1989 and resides in Florida.